


On Beautiful Nights and Their Consequences

by Anonymous



Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2012), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-12
Updated: 2020-09-19
Packaged: 2021-03-07 03:22:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,327
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26430058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Where someone is in trouble, and doesn't know it yet.
Relationships: Karai/Leonardo (TMNT)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 22
Collections: Anonymous





	1. Before

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Crowdog](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crowdog/gifts).



> _"Anything" is such a dangerous answer. (And, of course, feel free not to read if "anything" is not to your taste after all!)_
> 
> _Rated M to be safe. Chapter 1 is angst, I guess? And chapter 2 will be humor._
> 
> _Wishing you well. <3 _

Leonardo had been waiting for more than an hour on this rooftop, and _she_ hadn't shown up.

 _She_ was the one who had asked to meet him here and there, though. And Leonardo hadn't asked questions, even though she was supposed to be halfway through the world – in Japan, where she was born and had grown up, and had returned to ten months ago.

Without him.

Leonardo took a deep breath of chilly winter air. He didn't regret his decision; his life was in New York City, with his brothers. He had hoped that Karai would stay there too, but he had also known he had no right to impose it on her.

Karai had always been too independent not to take her own decisions, and he loved her for that.

With all his turtle heart.

Leonardo chased away his memories. Now wasn't the time to dwell on the past. He had to keep a clear head to listen to what Karai had to say – something so important she had to come in person...

What could it be?

_Last time the night had been mild. It was spring, and although they barely saw the stars because of the city's lights, the view was still breathtaking..._

Leonardo shook his head wildly. What was his brain doing to him? A clear head. He needed a clear head.

_They had fought side by side, only the two of them against dozens of foes, and reveled in the pleasure of their formidable team-up..._

_And on the pile of more or less conscious bodies, some of them groaning in pain and confusion, she had asked him, making it sound like an order because that was the only way she could show any vulnerability at all..._

_"Come with me, Leo."_

_Her gaze. Her lips pressed in a thin line, waiting for his answer. An answer she probably already knew..._

_"I can't."_

Leonardo took a deep breath and pressed his forehead against an air vent. Why did she choose this rooftop over every other rooftop in New York City? The rooftop where they had, for the first and only time...

_"I understand," Karai had said after a while, and her well-concealed disappointment was almost more than Leonardo could bear. "This is goodbye, then."_

_And then she had marched upon him, pressed her hand against his plastron with the remarkable force that he loved to see her display..._

_"You better make it memorable."_

_Leonardo's body had understood before his brain what she meant, and he might have had the idea of protesting if she hadn't kissed him like he had never been kissed before..._

_And this time, his whispered words hadn't been ones of rebuff._

_"Are you sure?"_

_"Yes."_

_His clumsy fingers around her face, her legs around his shell... No, her tail... No, her legs again..._

_He had thought, then, that paradise might exist for mutant turtles after all..._

The feeling of a familiar presence snapped him out of his thoughts.

"Leo."

Leonardo waited until the shadow came closer.

She was as beautiful as he remembered. She looked a little more tired, maybe, and was carrying a backpack in addition to her usual gear.

And as far as he could tell, she was alone.

"Hello, Karai. How have you been?" he asked calmly, as if his heart wasn't beating wildly in his chest.

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about," Karai said. Her tone held a note of humor, strangely mixed with sadness.

Leonardo tilted his head. "I'm listening."

"I won't be long." Karai removed her backpack with delicate gestures to put it on the ground between them. "Like you know, I'm trying to restore an ancient ninja clan..."

"The Foot, yes." Leonardo gave a deep sigh. "I know."

Karai ignored the interruption. "... and I have no time for a baby."

Leonardo blinked at her, once, then twice.

"Besides," Karai went on patiently, she's in danger close to me. Have you any idea how many people would try to use her against me if they knew? Luckily, I've managed to hide my pregnancy..."

"You're... you're pregnant?" Leonardo almost yelled in a very undignified high-pitched voice. This was too much information at a time; it felt like his brain cells didn't manage to connect in the way required for him to communicate like the adult mutant ninja turtle he was supposed to be now. He took a few precious seconds to calm his mind in turmoil. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Karai smiled, a sad smile that broke Leonardo's heart. "And then what? Your life is here and mine is in Tokyo."

"But..." Although it wasn't the most eloquent of answers, it was all Leonardo could utter right now.

"And you used to be more observant, Leo. Of course I'm not pregnant." Her voice sounded amused, like she was about to play the funniest prank on him. "She will be safe with you. With all of you."

She watched the backpack on the ground with a fond smile. Leonardo watched it too. He jumped when it moved.

"What the?"

"Don't you want to say hello to your daughter, Leo?" Under the moonlight, Karai's eyes were shining. From mischief, or...

Leonardo watched the backpack as if it was going to explode.

"But you... What are you... Will you stay?" he stammered.

Karai shook her head. "I'm going back to Japan."

"But don't you... but don't you... want _her_?"

Karai's features hardened. "If I hadn't wanted her, she would never have been born, Leo." She jumped lightly over the backpack to caress Leonardo's cheek, for the briefest of seconds...

"Sayonara, Leonardo," she whispered.

And then she was gone. Leonardo remained speechless and motionless on his rooftop, until something occurred to him.

"Karai, wait! You didn't tell me her name! Karai!"

Silence was his only answer.


	2. After

_"Karai, wait! You didn't tell me her name! Karai!"_

_Silence was his only answer._

Until the backpack bailed, demanding to be held.

Leonardo started and reflexively picked it up. Now that he was so close to it, he could see flashes of something white and green behind the fabric. He moved aside the protective layers and found himself looking into the tiniest of faces.

A face which was creased in its effort to be the loudest possible, and who was, all things considered, more red than anything else right now.

Leonardo called upon his years of undergoing impossible situations to push the panic back into the deepest corners of his soul.

“Shh. Shh.”

How was he even supposed to calm this baby? He had close to zero experience in that matter, if you excepted the time when he had held a very calm and playful baby Miwa in his arms.

Miwa, who had grown up to become the mother of the tiny being in his arms.

Leonardo pushed that thought back. He could hear windows opening in the building under him, and the baby was still crying.

“Hush, little one,” he whispered, cradling it. Babies liked to be cradled, right?

Apparently this one didn't care, or he was doing it the wrong way, because it didn't stop shouting at the top of its lungs.

Oh gosh. He was so bad at this.

“Who's there?” a voice called somewhere below, and Leonardo realized it was time to leave the place.

Without losing any more time, he ran to the fire escape and slid to the ground. He intended to find cover into the sewers. Would the baby's cries be heard topside when they would both be underground?

But then he realized that the baby had stopped crying. Maybe it liked being carried at ninja speed through chilly winter nights? Was it how Karai got it to sleep?

Eh. Their daughter had good taste.

Leonardo took advantage of the lull to disappear many streets farther. He stopped above a manhole cover and lifted it with one hand. He took a look at the baby's face before going down...

… and found himself staring into two deep blue eyes very similar to his own.

He felt a strange feeling spread in his chest.

“Hi,” he whispered. “I'm Leo. Apparently I'm your father. I've no idea what I'm going to do with you, but we'll find out, okay? Just please keep quiet a little while longer.”

The baby wriggled in his arms. Leonardo decided to believe that it had understood and put on the backpack. If Karai had been carrying their daughter that way, surely it wasn't dangerous for the baby's health.

He slid into the familiar darkness of the sewers with great relief and went as down as he could through the tunnels, until he was positive nobody could hear or surprise them. Then he switched on his T-Phone's light and took a better look at the backpack holding his newfound daughter.

Karai had been considerate enough to add several diapers and powdered milk in some of its pockets, but he would still need to go to the drugstore soon.

He didn't dare to take off the protective layers of clothes surrounding the baby itself. He would wait to be at the lair for that.

The lair. His brothers. They were bound to freak out. Should he call them to give them a warning or head directly home?

As if on cue, his T-Phone vibrated. It was Mikey.

Leonardo picked up. “Mikey? Is something the matter?”

“Leo! Where are you? Are you okay?”

Leonardo stood very still. Did his brother have a sixth sense or…

“Don't you remember it's the _Space Heroes_ four hours special tonight? Dude, you're going to miss out if you don't come back now!” Mikey went on.

And indeed, Leonardo now remembered. He had completely forgotten about it when Karai had texted him. It was his favorite cartoon; no wonder Mikey was worrying about his absence.

“I'm on my way back,” Leonardo answered. “But, uh, something unexpected happened. Are Raph and Donnie with you?”

“Sure,” Mikey's joyous voice answered. “You have a surprise for us?”

 _Oh yes, I do,_ Leonardo thought.

His daughter chose this moment to begin crying again. Maybe she didn't like being motionless? Leonardo started running towards the lair.

“Uh, Leo?”

“Yes, Mikey?”

“I'm hearing a baby. Are you with a baby?”

Leonardo cleared his throat. “It's complicated,” he almost shouted to be heard through the baby's crying. “I'll see you at the lair, okay?”

* * *

The trip to the lair took him even less time than usual. To his greatest relief, his daughter had fallen asleep after the first hundred feet.

His three brothers were waiting for him at the turnstiles. Obviously Mikey hadn't held his tongue.

“Hi, guys.” Leonardo hoped he didn't sound too weird. He certainly felt so.

“Mikey told us that you've found a baby,” Donnie said, ever the curious one. “Do you need our help to give it back to its parents?”

Leonardo let out a strangled little sound. “No, not exactly.”

“Then why are you bringing it to the lair?” Raph crossed his arms. “You know we're not equipped for babies.”

Leonardo took a deep breath. His cheeks felt so hot, he could only guess he was blushing hard. “Because I… Because I'm… I'm gnfagngn...”

Donnie tilted his head, intrigued. Mikey smiled encouragingly at him.

Raph raised an eye ridge. “Because you're what?”

Leonardo closed his eyes.

“Because I'm the father.”

The freaked out shouts of three mutant ninja turtles woke up the baby on his back.

* * *

“I can't believe it,” Raph kept saying. “I can't believe it. You had sex with Karai?”

Leonardo frowned at him. “Raph, hush. The baby can hear you, you know?”

He was feeding his daughter with a bottle of the milk Karai had left him, and she was drinking like there was no tomorrow.

“That's amazing,” Donnie whispered. “I really thought we were sterile.”

“Yeah, me too,” Mikey added. “I'll have to use condoms now, I guess.”

Leonardo, Donatello and Raphael all looked at him with wide eyes.

Michelangelo shrugged. “Well, Renet and I, we...”

“I don't want to know,” Raph said very quickly. “Can we go back to the matter at hand, that is, our brother and Karai have been… sharing good times together? Behind our backs?”

“Surely you didn't want to witness it,” Donnie added, teasing in spite of his obvious shock.

Raph ignored him. “Are you sure you're the father?” he added to Leonardo.

A rather mean question if you asked Leonardo. He didn't bother answering.

“Well, she has Leo's eyes and a mini-shell,” Donnie said. “So that's likely. Her arms and legs are more snake-like, though.”

“I can't believe it,” Raph repeated. “You would have thought _Leo_ would be more careful than that.”

“It happened once,” Leonardo mumbled.

“Obviously it was enough.” Donnie grinned at his niece.

“She's so sweet, guys,” Mikey whispered. “Can we keep her?”

“Yeah, well, it's not like we have a choice, right?” Raph grimaced. “Obviously we can't let Karai raise her.”

Leonardo decided to ignore that last comment, too. He felt warmed by the protective tone his brother had used.

But of course Raph loved all things cute, even though he would never admit it aloud.

And Mikey had adopted the baby the second he had seen it. And Donnie was already calculating how many diapers and milk bottles they would need.

Maybe things wouldn't be a complete mess after all.

The baby emptied its bottle of milk and Leonardo smiled at it. His daughter was so tiny, so fragile, and she needed him.

He would do his very best not to disappoint her, although he had no idea where to begin. What did a baby need? Food, sleep, dry diapers? He could do that. It would be several months – several years, maybe – before he had to take important decisions about her future. Nothing he could do now would be decisive for the rest of her life.

No reason to panic.

Donnie stroked the baby's cheek. "By the way, Leo, how are you going to name her?"


End file.
